On Monday, November 28, 2011 the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District and presenting sponsor Time Warner will host the Twelfth Annual Winter's Eve at Lincoln Square - New York City's largest holiday festival! Winter's Eve kicks off with a neighborhood tree lighting ceremony and features free entertainment, food tastings, in-store activities and shopping around and about this colorful and vibrant neighborhood.
Stores, restaurants, cultural organizations and public spaces in the district will be buzzing with activities for both children and adults. At the same time, sidewalks along Broadway from Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle to 68th Street will be alive with performers, street musicians, jugglers, stilt-walkers and more, making for a festive fun-filled stroll through the streets of this dynamic Upper West Side neighborhood.

WHEN: Monday, November 28, 2011, 5:30 PM, Rain, Snow or Shine!

WHERE: The celebration begins with a neighborhood tree lighting ceremony at Dante Park at Broadway& 63rd Street and continues along Broadway from Time Warner Center to 68th Street.

Arlo Guthrie is playing the tree lighting. The Klezmatics are playing in the dance tent. Catherine Russell is playing in the American Folk Art Museum. Marching bands will be playing on the street, and much more.

George Wein & Pete Seeger

Clearwater, founded by Pete Seeger, honors George Wein (founder of the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals) with the first annual "Power of Song Award." Performers include Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Suzanne Vega, Joan Osborne, Guy Davis, David Amram, Toshi Reagon, Lucy Kaplansky, George Wein and others to be announced soon. Proceeds benefit Clearwater's educational programs. For more on Clearwater visit www.clearwater.org.

The show is Friday, October 21 at Symphony Space in NYC and tickets are on sale.

Pete Seeger at Clearwater 2009 (more by )

The 2011 edition of the Clearwater Festival boasts some big names over its two days, June 18th and 19th, in Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. Founder Pete Seeger will be joined by Drive-By Truckers, Martin Sexton, Indigo Girls, Josh Ritter, Arlo Guthrie, Suzanne Vega, Billy Bragg (who plays NYCx3 a month later), and man other artists who are listed elow. Tickets are still available.

In related news, Martin Sexton will play four NYC shows before that Clearwater appearance, as part of a residency at City Winery. Tickets are sold-out for Martin Sexton on June 2nd, 3rd, & 4th at the venue but he just added a fourth late show on 6/4, and tickets are still available.

All Martin Sexton tour dates and the full Clearwater lineup is below.

Continue reading "Clearwater Fest 2011 lineup & other Martin Sexton dates"

by Andrew Frisicano

Guthrie Family...

Okay, so 40 years ago, August we were at Woodstock. Then that September, Jackie and I bought the farm (as it were), and we're still here. Later, that October we got married on the farm, still married too. Then later in November, Alice's Restaurant (the movie) was released! There hasn't been a four month stretch like that since then! So we're celebrating a lot of 40th things this year. -Arlo Guthrie opines on his 40ths

As previously mentioned, Arlo Guthrie will host his annual Thanksgiving show at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, November 28th. Dubbed "The Guthrie Family Rides Again," the show will feature three generations of Guthries including "Arlo, son Abe, daughters Cathy, Annie and Sarah Lee, son-in-law Johnny Irion, grandson Krishna, and assorted other children, grandchildren and guest artists." Tickets for are still on sale. The show also comes to Newark, NJ's NJPAC on Sunday, November 29th. Tickets to that are on sale too.

Come 2010, Arlo & family have expanded upon their already planned US tour dates to stretch through July. The first date of that tour is a February 20th show at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ. Tickets are on sale. The next night (2/21) is on Long Island at The Patchogue Theater (with tickets available too).

The Thanksgiving-themed song that started it all, "Alice's Restaurant," and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Guthrie Family Thanksgiving shows ++ updated tour dates"

DOWNLOAD: Woody Guthrie - Bad Repetation (MP3)

Rounder Records, in conjunction with The Woody Guthrie Archives, will inaugurate the new Woody Guthrie Legacy Series with a 4-CD boxed set, My Dusty Road on August 25. The original metal masters for these songs, recorded in the mid 1940s by Herbert Harris and Moses Asch, had languished for years in the Brooklyn basement of an elderly woman, stacked in cardboard barrels. Reissue co-producer Michael Creamer, who had learned of the cache from his cousin, took a few of the discs to the renowned mastering engineer Doug Pomeroy. The clarity and presence of the sound was revelatory.

The tracks included in the box set are just a fraction of the recordings found with the Guthrie recordings...

Roughly 2,000 metal discs were found in Irene Harris's storage bin. About 150 of those are Woody Guthrie recordings, and the rest are by a host of folk, blues, and jazz artists who recorded for the Stinson label, among them Lead Belly, Art Tatum, Mary Lou Williams, and Burl Ives.

....[Included in the find was] a disc marked "Bad Repetation," dated May 19, 1944, which had never appeared on an album or a field recording. It's likely that no one had heard the song for 60 years.

While most of the unearthed Guthrie recordings are already in print, half a dozen of the 54 tracks on My Dusty Road are alternate versions that have never been issued. "Bad Repetation" - a humorous song whose lyrics were included in two of Guthrie's late-1930s songbooks, suggesting the tune was a crowd-pleaser - is the one true find. [Boston Globe]

That track, "Bad Repetation", is posted above!!

Later this year and into 2010, the Guthrie Family - Abe Guthrie, Annie Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Cathy Guthrie, Johnny Irion and Sarah Lee Guthrie - will go on an extensive two-part tour of North America. The first leg includes a Thanksgiving weekend show (a yearly Arlo & Co. tradition) at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, November 28th. Tickets go on sale Thursday, October 1st.

All dates for the "Guthrie Family Rides Again" tour, and photos and tracklist of the Woody box set, which comes in a suitcase with all kinds of extra treats, are posted below...

Continue reading "Guthrie family touring (dates), Woody masters found in Brooklyn basement remastered for Rounder box set (MP3!)"

photos by Jim Brueckner

Deer Tick / Neko Case

"...And to think it almost didn't happen. When the [Newport Folk] festival's future was in question earlier this year, original executive producer George Wein took back the reins and scrambled to fill two days with an impressive lineup that appealed, in producer Jay Sweet's words, to "the musical omnivore.''...

...And this year the festival had a noticeably youthful presence; 9,200 people (fort capacity: 10,000) attended Saturday, giving the festival its highest single-day ticket sales since Bob Dylan's heralded return in 2002....

...It seemed impossible that Sunday could top this. But it nearly did with strong early sets from singer-songwriter Josh Ritter and the Campbell Brothers, who made it feel like Sunday morning in the front pew with an electric mix of gospel and soul played on steel guitars.

Making her Newport debut, [Neko Case] was in fine form, unleashing her sweeping voice to unfurl over the harbor with songs from her new album.

Mostly, though, [Sunday] was especially heavy on the legends. The Del McCoury Band, the festival's only bluegrass act, sang high-lonesome harmonies in their dapper suits, with McCoury's voice still dulcet and nimble at 70. And Arlo Guthrie was as much of a rascal as ever, remembering the stories behind tunes such as "The Motorcycle Song.''" [The Boston Globe]

Like Fleet Foxes, Neko Case also played All Points West over the weekend. Newport Folk Fest ran August 1st-2nd. APW was three days and started on July 31st.

Pete Seeger has had a busy 90th year. Not only did he headline both nights of Newport, he played both nights of his Clearwater Festival, MSG, Columbia University, Jazz Fest, Beacon High School, and probably something I'm forgetting.

Sunday was the day Deer Tick played Newport Folk. TONIGHT (August 7th) is the night Deer Tick plays a free show in Prospect Park with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, and Jones Street Station (who were added as first of three on the Brooklyn bill). Deer Tick also has more shows coming up including one on a boat around Manhattan (tix).

Pictures & video from Newport Day One are HERE. The rest of Day Two, below....

Continue reading "Newport Folk Fest 50 - Day 2 pics & video (Deer Tick, Neko Case, Joan Baez, Del McCoury, Elvis Perkins, Arlo G & more)"

photos by Chris La Putt

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

"CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NY - The Great Hudson River Revival, Clearwater's annual two-day music and environmental festival at Croton Point Park, came to a rousing close here on Sunday evening as a rain-drenched crowd of several thousand people cheered for headliner Arlo Guthrie and a number of onstage guests, including Taj Mahal and Pete Seeger.

Exact attendance figures are not available, but Festival Director Jon Dindas said that advance ticket sales surpassed last year's totals, and that the overall number of festivalgoers for 2009 peaked near seven thousand on Sunday-a remarkable accomplishment considering the rainy weather throughout the weekend.

"The true Clearwater spirit shined forth at this year's Revival, as both audience members and nearly eight hundred festival volunteers were able to withstand the challenges of the weather and yet still celebrate music, environmental education and the willingness to work for change and to make a difference in the world," said Dindas...

...The musical offerings on Sunday were filled with highlights. A succession of acts at the Circle of Song that included Rik Palieri, Work o' the Weavers and a Hudson River Sloop Singers Reunion drew a crowd of festival veterans while the Persuasions, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals and Cornmeal kept folks smiling. And then there was the inevitable full-stage hootenanny during Arlo Guthrie's festival closing set, which culminated in a rendition of "Let it Shine" with a backing band and chorus that featured Pete, Taj, Rainbow Stage performers Elvis Perkins in Dearland plus the aforementioned Jay and Molly, Tao and Mike and Ruthy.

Monday, Clearwater festival workers and volunteers are busy at Croton Point Park packing away equipment and mending the grounds. It is a Clearwater tradition to leave the park in better shape than it was before the Revival sets sail each year, and 2009 will be no different in this regard." [Clearwater]

The pictures from Saturday are HERE. More pictures from Sunday, below...

Continue reading "2009 Clearwater Festival - day 2 in pics (Grace Potter, rain, Elvis Perkins, soy power, Taj Majal, Arlo Guthrie & more)"

MSG photos & words by Jacob Blickenstaff, Columbia photos by Jens Schott Knudsen

Pete Seeger @ Columbia in April...

"Clearwater conducts innovative environmental programs, advocacy and celebrations in order to inspire and energize the next generation of environmental leaders.

Clearwater was founded in 1969 by music legend and environmental activist Pete Seeger." [Clearwater]

Pete Seeger's been busy lately, especially for someone who just celebrated his 90th birthday. The event for that occasion took place at Madison Square Garden on May 3rd, and is reviewed in full below, with pictures. A few weeks before that, on Earth Day (April 18th), Pete played a show at Columbia's Teachers College. Photos from that show are below too. Right after that he headed to New Orleans to perform at Jazz Fest. Prior to those, Seeger played the Clearwater benefit with Jeff Tweedy at Beacon High School on March 28th. We also recently noticed his name as the special guest on a show at Joe's Pub.

This summer Pete Seeger is scheduled to play the Newport Folk Festival (August 1st and 2nd), and will perform at his own Clearwater Festival, taking place in Croton-on-the-Hudson, NY this weekend (June 20th and 21st). The Clearwater Fest lineup includes Dr. Dog, A.C. Newman, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Richie Havens, Old Crow Medicine Show, Alejandro Escovedo, Arlo Guthrie and others. Its full schedule is below. Tickets are still sale at the gate.

UPDATE: we can confirm that Pete played his scheduled Saturday morning Clearwater Fest performance "with kids" for those who braved the rain. Pete will perform again at the festival on Sunday afternoon with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger.

A review of Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Celebration at MSG, and all above-mentioned photos, with the full Clearwater Festival lineup & schedule, below...

Continue reading "Clearwater Festival this weekend - full schedule ++ Pete Seeger pics (from his 90th birthday & Columbia University)"

The 50th annual Newport Folk Festival will take place at Rhode Island's Fort Adams Park on Saturday, August 1st and Sunday, August 2nd. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, May 6th at 10am

Pete Seeger, who is a cofounder of the Festival and who just celebrated his 90th birthday with a show at MSG, will be playing both nights. On Sunday, he'll be joined by Judy Collins, who is also performing a free Folks on the Island show Sunday, July 26th on NYC's Governors Island.

Saturday acts at the Fest include Billy Bragg and Tom Morello, who just shared a stage with Iggy Pop at NYC's Nokia Theatre, and the Decemberists, who have a big summer tour that's stopping at NYC's Radio City Music Hall on June 10th, Fleet Foxes, who have tour dates including All Points West, and the Avett Brothers, who are on tour and playing NYC's Irving Plaza on June 12th and 13th. Langhorne Slim will be there too (he's also at Lollapalooza this summer). Iron & Wine are playing both this, and ATP NY.

Sunday's show is heavy on big-name folkies with Collins (mentioned above), Joan Baez and Arlo Guthrie all performing. Arlo Guthrie is also playing a free show at Castle Clinton in NYC this summer.

Neko Case, playing Sunday, just did two nights at NYC's Nokia Theater and will be at All Points West, among other festivals.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland will be there. Perkins and Co. played the Bowery in March, and their summer tour includes a May 20th show at the Bell House in Brooklyn (tickets), and the Clearwater Festival (another project founded by Seeger) on June 20th and 21st in Croton-on Hudson, NY.

Also on Sunday is Deer Tick, whose big summer includes opening for Jenny Lewis at MHoW on June 9th, headlining the Bowery on July 24th (tickets go on sale Friday, May 8th at noon), and playing a free Celebrate Brooklyn show at Prospect Park on August 7th.

Full Newport Fork Festival info below...

Continue reading "Newport Folk Festival - 2009 lineup & tickets info (Pete Seeger, Neko Case, Iron & Wine, The Decemberists & more)"

Four free shows at Castle Clinton in NYC this summer...

July 16 - Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra Plays the Music of Sly & the Family Stone: "It's a Family Affair"

July 23 - Richie Havens

July 30 - Arlo Guthrie

Aug 06 - John Kelly Sings The Joni Mitchell Songbook: "Songs for a Shiny Hot Night"

It's a four-part series in honor of Woodstock's 40th Anniversary called "Four Nights of Peace, Love & Music: A Castle Clinton Tribute to Woodstock".

By Andrew Frisicano

Folk singer Arlo Guthrie has been associated with Thanksgiving since recording "Alice's Restaurant" in 1967. The song, which starts in an old church owned by his friends Alice and Ray and ends in New York's now-demolished US Army Building on Whitehall St, humorously details how a Thanksgiving Day-littering charge helped Guthrie avoid the draft. The church in question is now the Guthrie Center, a non-denominational faith center, out of which Guthrie runs his Rising Son Record label. Guthrie continues to apply his satirical wit to current issues, like this live update of Tom Paxton's "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler Fannie Mae."

This Saturday, Nov 29, Guthrie carries on his annual Thanksgiving tradition, playing with legend Pete Seeger (who toured with Guthrie's father as part of the Almanac Singers in the early '40s), family and friends at Carnegie Hall's 2,804-seat Stern Auditorium at 8 PM. Tickets are almost gone: from Carnegie Hall, "Currently this event has limited availability. Please call CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 for ticketing information."

Watch & listen to various versions of "Alice's Restaurant" in the videos below (possibly while enjoying some delicious Tofurky)...

Continue reading "Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger Annual Thanksgiving Concert -------- a whole bunch of Alice's Restaurant videos"